This invention relates generally to a display device or toy and more particularly to one simulating a tea kettle having water boiling within.
Toys which simulate the action of actual devices used by adults have long been popular with children over a wide range of ages. Among the most popular of such toys have been those which simulate the function of common household items, such as are used by adult homemakers in everyday life. A particularly popular group of such toys have been those which simulate items commonly used in the kitchen, such as sinks, stoves, cooking utensils, and the like. Many of these items can be used in a manner which essentially duplicates the function of the real item without the requirement of any simulation of that function. However, significant safety problems are posed by any toys or devices which involve the utilization of heat. Thus, it is necessary to simulate the effects of the application of heat with such toys instead of utilizing merely the duplication of function and the application of actual heat thereto.
One of the most difficult functions to simulate has been that of boiling water, such as is used in tea kettles and coffee pots. However, the desirability of having toys of this nature has led to numerous approaches and methods of simulation. For example, the action of a coffee percolator has been simulated in toys disclosed in Butler et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,078,607, Buh, Jr. et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,046,683, Pearson, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 2,991,575, and in U.S. Pat. No. 3,061,970, owned by the present inventor. The difficulty in simulating the action of boiling water is reflected in the use in the Butler et al, Buh, Jr. et al and Pearson, Jr. patents of battery operated, motor-driven devices, which have the inherent problems of both complexity, and thus expense, and also the short lifetime of the operating batteries. A different approach to simulating action of boiling water in a tea kettle was disclosed in Palumbo et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,205,610 in which a concealed balloon is pumped up by a bellows assembly and is then vented through a tube which extends through a toy tea kettle and has a whistle on the end for simulating the whistling of steam escaping from a boiling tea kettle. However, the realism of such a tea kettle is severely compromised by the unnatural requirement for using a bellows device to pump up the balloon. Realism of this Palumbo et al device is further compromised by the immediate initiation of the whistling sound upon setting the toy tea kettle upon its stove-simulating stand, unlike the real object which requires a period of time of boiling to generate sufficient steam to initiate the whistling. This structure, like the coffee percolators, also suffers from the disadvantage of complexity and thus potential for damage through the rough use frequently given toys.